Bedridden and incontinent patients typically require continuous care to dispose of human waste products. Typically, bedridden patients may relieve themselves into a separate receptacle that is then replaced by a caretaker. As the patient has to adjust their position to use the receptacle, such a method of relief may be cause discomfort to the patient for physical reasons as well as for reasons of embarrassment.
Patients unable to move, as well as incontinent patients, are typically incapable of using a separate receptacle for relief. In such cases, human waste products are typically collected on an absorbent pad, drawsheet or similar device that may be fastened to the patient's bed or to the patient themselves. However, such devices are incapable of preventing human waste products from contacting the skin of the patient due to compression of the absorbent pad or drawsheet by the patient's weight. Consequently, the patient may develop pressure ulcers from continued contact with the waste products. Additionally, the necessity of having a caretaker change an unclean absorbent pad or drawsheet may cause further embarrassment for the patient.
Other alternatives for waste collection for bedridden and incontinent patient include waste collection receptacles that may be inserted into a cavity defined in a mattress while the patient is relieving themselves. However this alternative does not prevent the human waste products from contacting the patient's skin due to compression of the mattress and may be difficult to remove while the patient remains on the bed. A similar alternative involves adding a mattress overlay device to address the problem of mattress compression; however for reasons of patient comfort and other factors the device needs to be installed when the patient is ready to relieve themselves and removed immediately following relief, making such a device unsuitable for incontinent patients. Another alternative involves inflating a mattress and inserting a waste collection receptacle into a cavity defined in the mattress when the mattress is inflated; however, this device must similarly be inserted when the patient is ready for relief and removed immediately thereafter, thereby making continuous collection of human waste products impossible.